Nick Ichien

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I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the UCLA. My work aims to clarify the mental representations and cognitive operations that constitute complex thought and how complex thought, in turn, shapes human learning and memory.

Selected publications

* Denotes equal author contribution

** Denotes student mentee

• Ichien, N., & Kan, A.** (2025). Comparisons promote a tradeoff between individuation and generalization. Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. San Francisco, California: Cognitive Science Society. 

• Ichien, N., N., Lin, N.**, Holyoak, K. J., & Lu, H. (2024). Cognitive complexity explains processing asymmetry in judgments of similarity versus difference. Cognitive Psychology, 151, 101661.

• Ichien, N., Alfred, K. L., Baia, S., Kraemer, D. J. M., Holyoak, K. J., Bunge, S. A., & Lu, H. (2023). Relational and lexical similarity in analogical reasoning and recognition memory: Behavioral evidence and computational evaluation. Cognitive Psychology, 141, 101550.

All publications

Peer-reviewed journal articles

• Ichien, N., Stamenković, D., Whatley, M. C., Castel, A. D., Holyoak, K. J. (2025). Advancing with age: Older adults excel in comprehension of novel metaphors. Psychology and Aging, 40(1), 6–16. 

• Ichien, N., Stamenković, D., & Holyoak, K. J. (2024) Large language model displays emergent ability to interpret novel literary metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol. 39(4), 296–309.

• Ichien, N., N., Lin, N.**, Holyoak, K. J., & Lu, H. (2024). Cognitive complexity explains processing asymmetry in judgments of similarity versus difference. Cognitive Psychology, 151, 101661.

• Ichien, N.*, Liu, Q.*, Fu, S., Holyoak, K. J., Yuille, A. L., & Lu, H. (2023). Two Computational Approaches to Visual Analogy: Task-Specific Models Versus Domain-General Mapping. Cognitive Science, 47: e13347.

• Holyoak, K . J., Ichien, N., & Lu, H. (2023). Analogy and the generation of ideas. Creativity Research Journal.

• Stamenković, D., Milenkovic, K., Ichien, N., & Holyoak, K. J. (2023). An Individual-Differences Approach to Poetic Metaphor: Impact of Aptness and Familiarity. Metaphor and Symbol, 38(2), 149-161.

• Ichien, N., Alfred, K. L., Baia, S., Kraemer, D. J. M., Holyoak, K. J., Bunge, S. A., & Lu, H. (2023). Relational and lexical similarity in analogical reasoning and recognition memory: Behavioral evidence and computational evaluation. Cognitive Psychology, 141, 101550.

• Holyoak, K. J., Ichien, N., & Lu, H. (2022). From semantic vectors to analogical mapping. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1-7.

• Lu, H., Ichien, N., & Holyoak, K. J. (2022). Probabilistic analogical mapping with semantic relation networks. Psychological Review. 129(5), 1078–1103.

• Ichien, N., Lu, H., & Holyoak, K. J. (2022). Predicting patterns of similarity among abstract semantic relations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 48(1), 108–121.

• Stamenković, D., Ichien, N., & Holyoak, K. J. (2020). Individual differences in comprehension of contextualized metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol, 35(4), 285-301.

• Kadambi, A., Ichien, N., Qiu, S. & Lu, H. (2020). Understanding the visual perception of awkwardness: How greetings go awry.  Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82, 2544-2557.

• Ichien, N., Lu, H., Holyoak, K. J., (2020). Verbal analogy problem sets: An inventory of testing materials. Behavior Research Methods, 52, 1803-1816.

• Peng, Y., Ichien, N., & Lu, H. (2020). Causal actions enhance perception of continuous body movements. Cognition, 194, 104060.

• Stamenković, D., Ichien, N., & Holyoak, K.J. (2019). Metaphor comprehension: An individual differences approach. Journal of Memory and Language, 105, 108-118.

Peer-reviewed book chapters and conference proceedings papers

• Ichien, N., & Kan, A. (2025). Comparison promotes a tradeoff between individuation and generalization. Proceedings of the 47th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. San Francisco, California: Cognitive Science Society. 

• Ichien, N., Lin, N.**, Holyoak, KJ. J., & Lu, H. (2023). Asymmetry in the complexity of the relations same and different produces an asymmetry in similarity and difference judgments. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Sydney, Australia: Cognitive Science Society.

• Ichien, N. & Cheng, P. (2022). Revisiting Hume in the 21st century: How forming generalizable causal beliefs is possible when causal relations are inherently unobservable. In A. Wiegmann & P. Willemsen (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Causation, London, UK: Bloomsbury Press.

• Ichien, N., Alfred, K. L., Baia, S. R., Kraemer, D. J. M., Bunge, S. A., Lu, H., & Holyoak, K. J. (2022). Relation representations in analogical reasoning and recognition memory. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.

• Ichien, N., Kan, A. & Holyoak, K. J., Lu, H., (2022). Generative inferences in relational and analogical reasoning: A comparison of computational models. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.

• Lindford, B., Ichien, N., Holyoak, K. J., & Lu, H. (2022). Impact of semantic representations on analogical mapping with transitive relations. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.

• Snefjella, B., Ichien, N., Holyoak, K. J., & Lu, H. (2022). Predicting human judgments of relational similarity: A comparison of computational models based on vector representations of meaning. Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of Cognitive Science Society. Toronto, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.

• Ichien, N.*, Liu, Q.*, Fu, S., Holyoak, K. J., Yuille, A., & Lu, H. (2021). Visual analogy: Deep learning versus compositional models. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of Cognitive Science Society. Vienna, Austria: Cognitive Science Society.

• Ichien, N., Lu, H., & Holyoak, K.J. (2019). Individual differences in judging similarity between semantic relations. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.

• Lu, H., Liu, Q, Ichien, N., Yuille, A., & Holyoak, K. J. (2019). Seeing the meaning: Vision meet semantics in solving pictorial analogy problems. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.

• Peng, Y., Ichien, N., & Lu, H. (2019). Perception of continuous movements from causal actions. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.